


Impossible Things

by SanoSSagara



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Torchwood
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Gen, M/M, Snarky Jarvis, Time Travel, WWII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-14
Updated: 2013-11-14
Packaged: 2018-01-01 11:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SanoSSagara/pseuds/SanoSSagara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony helps Steve reunite with something he thought he'd lost, all the while reviewing his life full of Impossible Things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I loved him

Another story written while I was on winter break in my lovely home of Belize. Now that I'm back to Uni, I've had a bit of time to write this up and hopefully polish it a bit. Tell me what y'all think!

Impossible things

Tony Stark was not a man who believed in superstition. At least, not much. He grew up hearing of the exploits of the great Captain America, and with the subsequent Gamma sized accident known as the Hulk and Bruce Banner, and counting in the now frequent visits of Asgardian Fellows… he supposed his definitions of possible, probable, and unusual were a bit skewed. Superheroes were real. Super Villains were real. Monsters were real. Being thawed out good as new from a solid block of ice after 70 years was real.

But immortality… That still wasn't real.

Was it?

After their initial rocky (mountainous) start, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark became very good, very close friends. They shared drinks together while watching tapes of baseball games that had stunned the leagues. Tony gave Steve free reign through his expansive movie collection so that the out of time hero could finally follow the myriad of quotes and references that passed for conversation in today's world. The two went to games and shows and concerts and museums together.

Lots and lots of museums.

It was in a museum that Tony learned something about Captain America that he was willing to bet no one else alive did.

"I was in love with him,"

Tony jerked around so fast that he felt his neck crack. Steve was standing at parade rest in front of a long picture of WWII soldiers taken during the London Blitz. Walking over, Tony leaned around Steve to see their faces. There, front and centre, was Captain America, looking boldly into the camera—or trying to at least. That sheepish smile threatened to undermine his calm look.

"Who?"

A single finger was pressed to the glass, indicating a tall, broad shouldered man with a handsome square jaw and thick hair. Even in the formal picture the man had a debonair and cocky smile, full of mirth and wicked humor, and a feeling of cock-sure swagger fairly oozed out of the picture from the man's body language. He looked vaguely familiar to Tony.

"The ham looking one?" Stark watched Steve's face soften as he nodded.

"He was very much a ham," he agreed, "Full of confidence, arrogance… Headstrong and reckless. He had this… way of making everyone around him love him, follow him, even as he drove you insane,"

Tony smirked when Steve turned and asked if that reminded him of anyone in particular.

"Quite a few people, actually," Steve punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"'S why…" Steve trailed off.

"It's why what?"

"Why I was so angry with you in the beginning. All I could see was him when you walked into the room. All I could hear was him. All I could think about was him. It was like a flashback, or a terrible dream," Steve turned away, "Can we go back to the Tower? I'm cold."

"Sure thing, Capscicle," Tony clapped a hand to his friend's shoulder and they returned to the Stark (Avenger's) Tower.

A few days later, Tony was still mulling over what Steve had told him, and the fact that Steve's lost love had looked so oddly familiar. Maybe his father had known the man as well and shown Tony a picture? Could Howard have had more pictures that Tony didn't remember?

That must be it.

"Jarvis. All of my father's photos from WWII,"

"ALL of them Sir?"

"Very funny. No, just of the men. We're looking for someone specific,"

It only took a few moments fro Tony to find the first photo with Steve's handsome stranger in it,

"That's the one Jarvis. Find me every photo there is with this man in it,"

"Every one, Sir, very well,"

"And ping Rogers as well when you're done,"

"Very well Sir,"

Tony went off in search of a decent pastrami sandwich while Jarvis worked, figuring he had at least an hour or so before Jarvis had compiled all the pictures and sorted through the duplicates. He flopped onto the couch upstairs to watch the news while he waited.

Three hours had passed before Tony grew impatient.

"Jarvis! What's taking so damn long?" he barked at the ceiling.

"I have amassed forty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty three photos, Sir, and am still gathering," came back the even reply of his AI.

Tony sputtered and choked on his scotch at the number. Soon he was sliding into the lab, yanking up one of his holo screens to look at Jarvis's actual progress—sure that the AI had misunderstood his request and angry at the mistake.

Pictures. So many pictures.

It couldn't be the same man. Some were obviously the man from the museum picture, and several photos were dated the same day as the one in the museum. Others were grainy and hard to distinguish without photo software but still the men in them were passable for Steve's mystery man. There were photos from the London Blitz, from the start of the war, from Warsaw, from the bombing of the Folke Wulf Factory in Berlin. But the next screen he pulled up… These were photos from the very advent of photography. The clothes and the setting and the timestamp all ancient, but that dashing smile still undoubtedly the same. Still more photos had the look of cell phone captures and a date stamp from the past year. No, Jarvis pinged another photo into the ever growing pool and it had today's date stamp on it. It looked like a still from England's CCTV feed.

A bell chimed and Tony turned stunned eyes to the counter.

Sixty nine thousand photographs. And still more video clips were popping up as Jarvis began to realize Tony would be wanting more.

"Jarvis?" Tony thrust the photos across all his available screens, staring in rapt amazement at the sheer number of them. Good god, that one looked like it was taken in Manhattan, "Jarvis, his name?"

"Captain Jack Harkness," Steve breathed from the doorway.

"Mister Rogers is correct Sir. All photographs with an attribution identify the man as one Captain Jack Harkness, with only forty deviations," Jarvis's clipped voice brokered no argument.

Tony clutched at Steve when the bigger man suddenly stumbled, "Whoa there Spangles!"

"Tony, but, how?"

The genius had no answer.


	2. He's Immortal and He Does Porn?

"So, from the top, right?"

Steve nodded slowly as he stared at the photos surrounding him. Tony cleared his throat and awkwardly started, walking through and around photos as he spoke,

"When you showed me that picture in the museum the other day, I'd thought he looked familiar. I figured Dad might have shown me some photo of him, and I thought…"

Tony trailed off sheepishly, "I thought that you might like to have some pictures of him. Since, y'know, he meant so much to you," Tony gestured around them, "But all… this, happened,"

"Tony, thank you. That was… very kind of you to think to do," Steve's voice was small, and clearly confused, "How can it be real though? Are these all photograph shopped? Is he, what are they called, some sort of meme now?"

"No, these are all real photos as far as Jarvis can tell," Jarvis chimed his agreement from "Then they can't all be him. People just don't not age!" Steve exclaimed.

"You don't. At least, not like normal. Maybe he was another test subject for the serum?" Tony suggested.

"Then what about this one?" Steve jabbed at a photo and it sprung into being before them, life sized and crystal clear. Standing next to the spirit of St. Louis was Charles Lindberg, smiling jauntily. And to his right stood Harkness, "Or this one?" Harkness standing at sloppy attention next to several men in WWI uniforms in front of a pile of captured Fokers, "Or this!" same twinkling grin, same jacket, same man standing behind Commodore Perry overlooking a Japanese harbor.

Tony let his hands flutter in a helpless gesture.

"Or this one…" Steve's voice cracked as he nudged a color photograph with a CCTV time stamp on it onto the largest screen.

Harkness had his arm possessively around another man with short hair. The two were locked in a heated kiss, the other man's suit jacket was hanging off both arms and his tie clenched in Harkness's big hand.

"That," a cough, "is from a website called 'janto jives' dot com," Tony pulled up the homepage. It was obviously a pornographic website, and a ticker across the top of the page invited the user to make a paid-for-account and "come play naked hide and seek with us".

"He's immortal and he does pornography?" Steve's voice was strangling somewhere between horror and amusement.

"Doesn't look like it. This seems like a third party had found a quick way to make some money off of surveillance tapes," Tony nodded toward the photo again, "See how there's a time stamp? Looks like this came from England's closed circuit security tapes,"

"That was taken today? He's alive tight now?" The hope was plain to hear in Steve's voice.

"Want to find him?" Tony asked, already keying up Jarvis's search program.

"Please,"


	3. Lot's of Ideas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N- I couldn't bear to let this be slapped onto another chapter, it was just too amusing to me. So I made this, and the previous chapter into two.

The silence of the Torchwood Hub was shattered by Jack's scream. Everyone froze; Ianto's fingers stilling as he paused in making coffee.

"TOSHIKO! OWEN! GWEN! Board room! NOW!" Jack's head appeared over his railing, "Ianto! With me!"

"What on Earth did you three do?" Ianto asked mildly, enjoying the looks of utter fright on his coworker's faces.

"Lots of ideas. Don't know which one to fess up to yet," Owen ventured as he stood. Further talk was killed by Jack's voice again.

"I, said, NOW!"

"Pray for me," whispered Tosh as she, Gwen, and Owen fled.


	4. She Makes You Look Good

"Some sort of organization called Torchwoo…" Tony paused, "Jarvis? Ring Pepper,"

"Right away Sir,"

"Tony, are you dead? Dying? What's wrong?" Pepper's calm voice filled the room as her face blinked up on a screen, "You never call during the day,"

"Do I look dead or dying? No, don't answer. Pepper does 'Torchwood' mean anything to you?"

Even Steve could hear the red head scowl, "It sure as hell should mean something to you too Tony. They're our largest investor and second best customer, even since we stopped making public domain weapons,"

"Oh," Tony blinked, "What about Jack Har-,"

Pepper cut him off, "Captain Harkness is the LEADER of Torchwood, Tony. For goodness sakes, pay attention when I tell you how your company is doing!"

"But that's why I have you, Pepper!" Tony made a kissing noise, "Thanks, very busy, gotta go, bye bye," He closed the call down.

After a moment, "Well, then…" Tony started, "How do we get…"

"Sir, Miss Potts would like me to tell you that you now have a meeting set up with one Captain Harkness for Monday at six. In Cardiff, Wales,"

"And there we go!" Tony coughed as Steve allowed the tiniest smile.

"She makes you look good Tony,"

"Let's hope she never realizes she's too good for me, right?"

"We're going then, yeah?"


	5. How About A Coffee?

"Whose bright idea was this?" Jack's voice was frighteningly calm as he stalked the board room. Ianto was sitting at a laptop, mouth hanging open slightly and a spectacular blush was working its way across his face.

No one answered.

"Okay. How about this?" Jack paused, "I'll shoot each of you in the foot and whoever yells first get's in trouble?" he sounded so, so pleasant, "I'll feel better, all of you'll get punished, we'll all win. No?"

Gwen was the first to crack, "It was my idea! But Tosh did the work!"

Toshiko glowered at Gwen before sighing and hanging her head in defeat.

"An~~," grumbled Owen.

"Come again?" just how did Jack make his voice so sweet sounding?

"And I suggested making it pay-per-view," he refused to meet his boss's eyes.

"I want it taken down. And that money had better show up on my desk in 24 hours," Jack took a deep breath for more, but Ianto stopped him.

"Actually, it seems like it's quite the lucrative site,"

Four heads swiveled in tandem.

"Bloody pervert," accused Owen.

"True. But I think there's only one way to make this even," Ianto tapped a few keys, "And there were go. Will this suffice Jack?"

Captain Jack Harkness stepped across the room to peer over his lover's shoulder. Expression going from very cross to overjoyed (in a decidedly evil sort of manner) in seconds, Jack began to chuckle.

"That'll do, Ianto," he smiled hugely at the others, "Never mind. But that money had better under up on my desk still. Dismissed,"

As Jack and Ianto turned to go, Owen heard Ianto inform Jack of a meeting for Monday. The be-suited Welshman paused at the boardroom door and slowly smiled at his friends, "Such good work you all did. How about a coffee?"

Three hours later, Gwen, Owen, and Tosh still sat staring at their mugs, willing someone else to take the first sip in case of poison. Above, in Jack's office, Ianto finished uploading various pictures to the newest tab in the Janto Jives website: the TorchWOODIES' archive, which featured the other members of the team.

"You are sexy when you're evil, you know that Ianto?" Jack purred into Ianto's neck.

"Merely doing as you would, Sir," Ianto leaned back with satisfied smirk as he heard Tosh urge Owen to drink first.


	6. You're Impossible to Forget Capsicle

"Your best investor?" Steve probed.

"Apparently," Tony was slouched in the lavish seat of his favorite personal jet.

"Second best customer?"

"Appears so," Tony knew what was coming.

"And you didn't recognize him?"

"Was I automatically supposed to realize he was immortal and… you KNOW I don't pay attention in meetings!" Tony pouted. On a less rich, less handsome, less eccentric genius the expression would have been out of place, but Tony sulked just as well as he flirted and Steve felt compelled to drop that line of thought.

"And what did she mean public domain weapons?" compelled; not convinced.

"You know we still make weapons, right?" Tony nodded to the Stark logo on Steve's side arm. When Steve nodded, he continued, "Well, we sell them to SHIELD. And old grouchy Mr. Eyepatch persuaded us to supply another, apparently similar organization in England. Apparently it's called Torchwood. I only ever knew it by TW3: Cardiff. Didn't think it had a longer, real, name,"

"Oh," Steve looked through the window.

"Mad at me?" Tony pretended the answer wouldn't matter, but his friend's opinion mattered just as much to him as Jarvis's, Pepper's, and Rhodey's.

"…No," Steve sighed, "I knew you were doing it for us, and if Fury trusts this organization, then I guess we should too. Even if…"

"So how well did you know Mr. Suspenders-and-coat?"

"The entire time I was in the program. I…" Steve flushed and toyed with his armrest.

"Were you two, y'know," Tony, rather than say something crude, showed great maturity by merely miming the gesture.

"No! No, I mean…" a sigh, "I, we were only talked occasionally. I was too ashamed of my disease, my feelings. Too scared of what others thought. Back then… I didn't understand why the serum hadn't cured me of those urges as well. We were friends. Friendly. But I loved him. He was like this, shining promise of the future,

"And he smelled fantastic,"

Tony looked startled, "He smelled good?"

Nodding, Steve continued, "Like how sex-appeal should smell. Intoxicating. Like a wildfire and a stiff drink and this dark essence. He would never say what cologne he bought; just laugh at you and go, 'You guys have no idea!',"

"Sounds like a frustrating guy," Tony mused.

"Like you without the-,"

"Smile? Charm? Dashing good looks? Brain?"

"The money," Steve smirked, then a worried look crossed his face, "If, if this IS him, do you think he'll remember me?"

"You're impossible to forget, Capscicle,"


	7. Never, Sir

"Sir, the representatives from Stark Enterprises are here," Ianto let his phone fall from limp fingers as Jack nipped his shoulder blade.

"Representatives? Plural? Has the lovely Miss Pepper finally brought the equally lovely Miss Romanov for some fun?" Jack poked his head over Ianto's bare shoulder.

"No, it appears to be two men. Mr. Stark himself, and-,"

"Steve…" Jack stilled.

Ianto twisted so Jack's head was on his chest, "You know Captain America?" He really did try to keep the twinge of jealousy from his voice.

Jack chuckled and nipped a line from Ianto's collar bone to his lips, "Yes," a kiss, "But he and I were never together. I think he wanted to… but I would never have been able to do that to his friend. Buck, Bucket, Buckey something. I could see it happening, but it was too fragile to push. Back then," Jack shook his head sadly, "We were friends though,"

Jack pondered.

"Why haven't you talked to him since? You must have known. The Asgard incident almost needed us and U.N.I.T. to intervene," Ianto began to dress, no longer quite as worried, and instead feeling empathy for the time-shunted hero.

"His life has been complicated enough without me showing up all Immortal and sexy and from the future/past/doubled back onto my own timeline and such," Jack sighed, "I have been keeping tabs though. It may not have been time travel in the normal sense, but if he looked like he was gonna break, gonna need my help, then I would have gone to him,"

Jack stood with a languid stretch and began to dress as well, "Don't tell me you were jealous for a second there, Ianto,"

"Never Sir,"

The two grinned at each other and went to discuss how to greet their guests.


	8. THIS is it?!

"This?! THIS is it?!" Tony spun on his heel in front of the locked door to the Cardiff tourism office, "All that technology goes here?!"

Steve was also puzzled. An organization that commanded enough of Fury's respect to be left completely alone would certainly need a larger compound than a beaten up shack.

"And there's something wrong with that sculpture!" Tony yelled into the wind.

"We here in Cardiff happen to love that sculpture,"

Tony and Steve whirled around to face the pleasant looking young man in a suit and tie who had suddenly appeared at the doorway to the office.

"And just where the hell did you come from?!" Tony really should stop with the pointing and yelling, thought Steve as the pair followed their greeter inside.

Both Steve and Tony were, by and large, well rounded individuals in the realm of shock and awe. One was a super soldier resuscitated from the ice after seventy years who had one been a 90lb asthmatic. The other had a miniature arc-reactor keeping shrapnel in his chest from killing him that he had fashioned in the near dark in a cave in the middle of a terrorist den.

But nothing could prepare anyone for their first encounter with Torchwood.


	9. Shock and Awe Treatment

Owen, in all his white labcoat-ed and skinny jean-ed glory, stood above the autopsy bay where six weevils crouched, hissing angrily up at him even as they cowered.

Gwen was trying to look imposing, leaning on her desk and inspecting her handgun.

Toshiko hovered near her keyboard, typing at an astonishing and very Noble-worthy speed as machines whizzed and clicked around her.

Ianto simply led Tony and Steve through the huge circular door then continued to stand possessively in front of Jack's office.

Tony's mouth hung open as he gaped. The technology wasn't nearly as chrome polished here as it was in his own lab, but there was a level of advancement that blew his mind here. He couldn't even begin to guess what some of the contraptions lying around did. Steve on the other hand was much more used to being astounded by technology and today's modern world than Tony, so he was able to keep a relatively polite look of interest plastered onto his face instead of the sheer gape that Tony had.

"What in the hell are those?" Tony raced over to Owen and craned his upper body over the railing for a better look. Owen lost his look of superiority as the King of the Weevils for his usual thing lipped scowl.

"Blimey, doesn't anyone do a proper 'shock and awe' treatment anymore?" He stormed off, the weevils trailing meekly behind.

Tosh sighed and tossed her stylus down in disgust, "Yeah, one day we need to find some… excitable little young earth theorist to freak out,"

Gwen just reholstered her gun, "Should I be worried that the 'treatment' worked on me?" she grumbled.

"Very," Ianto nodded politely and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Jack should be ready shortly, Mr. Stark, Mr. Rogers. No doubt he is mourning 'the moment'. Would either of you like some coffee?"

Steve accepted the offer graciously even as he recognized that this was the man Captain Harkness was in all those videos and pictures with.

"You'll just have to wait a moment; something seems off with this pot. I'll start you gentlemen another,"

Tony noticed the feral look of glee that crossed the man's face when Toshiko made of choking noise and spat a mouthful of her own coffee out.

"Is it gonna be safe?" he asked lightly.

"Of course! My Ianto makes the best brew this side of the next millennium, and failing that, certainly on this side of the galaxy," Steve froze as a familiar booming voice rang out from above him. Looking up, Jack was there, leaning heavily on the linked chain failing. His trousers hanging perfectly, his suspenders matching, and his ever-present greatcoat trailing. He looked exactly the same as he had 70 years ago. Or was that a grey hair?

"Mr. Stark, pleasure to finally meet you," Jack's eyes never left Steve's, "Well. Good to see you again, Steve Rogers. How have you been?"


	10. Impossible Things

Answers were supposed to make things clearer, not confuse him even more, thought Tony as she sipped his (excellent) coffee and listened to Jack's explanation. Time Agents, a doctor of some sort, a thing called 'the rift'. Bad Wolf? What in the hell did that mean? Jack was immortal. Jack was a time traveler. Jack was from the 51st century.

And he really DID smell amazing.

Torchwood was Earth's last line of defense against alien hostility, along with U.N.I.T. how had he never heard of them before?

"Not to be rude, but, how the hell haven't I heard about you guys yet?"

"Because it's a need to know deal," came the somewhat smug reply.

"But… we're the Avengers…. We're Earth's last line of defense…" he waved his hands.

"Fury convinced me that you all had it handled," Jack shrugged, "You know it is really strange that that whole mess happened in America. Usually it happens at a Rift point here in England. Don't you remember the Cybermen? Ghosts? The Dalek invasion?"

"Locked in Ice for 70 years," Steve whispered.

"Locked in… uh… my lab," Tony frowned, "I need to drink less,"

"Don't worry. If anything really dangerous happens to show up, we'll take care of it. Or the Doctor will come,"

Both Steve and Tony bristled at the implication that they couldn't protect their world, but after meeting Jack's calm and level gaze they abated. Tony was new to this whole superhero gig, and Steve was only just understanding the new world he had woken up in. This Torchwood, they learned, was an old organization that operated outside of the law, outside of the government. Inside the shadows where they protected, cleaned up, and… covered up.

"Captain, I still don't, uh, I…" Steve trailed off, pain on his face. Jack sighed.

"First off Steve, how many times did I tell you to just call me Jack?"

"He's hardly a captain anywho," Owen chimed in, which earned him a long suffering look.

"What?" Steve thought he'd spent his entire waking time since the ice in an unending state of confusion.

"Well, I was never really in the Air Force. But I am the one and only… well… um, damn it, I'm more attractive as Captain Jack Harkness, don't you think?"

"That's not your real name?"

Jack shook his head and nibbled a biscuit, "No, the real Captain Jack Harkness was a cute pilot during the Second World War. After he dies, well, I do wear it well, no? And he wouldn't mind," He finished with an odd look of melancholy remembrance.

"What is your real name?" Steve asked quietly.

"Good luck on that one! OW!"

"Thanks Ianto,"

Ianto took his seat again after having expertly lobbed the empty biscuit tin over the railing into autopsy. Owen's mild cursing filtered up and everyone shared a chuckle. No one however missed that Jack had sidestepped the question and plowed onto his explanation for having come to the earth in the first place.

"You were a con-man?" Steve gasped.

"I was also an unashamed coward," Jack's smile grew wistful, "The Doctor changed that. Damn do I miss being a coward sometimes,"

"Tony reached over and gripped Jack's arm in mutual suffering.

"Ahh, let me guess, Captain America over there dragged the heroics right out of you? He has that talent too,"

Tony laughed and started to agree but Steve cut him off.

"No,"

Tony looked over at him, "No?"

"You were a hero already Tony," Steve's voice was small. Both men were remembering an argument long since ignored and buried.

The Hub fell into a silence and Steve went to continue, still studying his feet, but Myfanway screamed and swooped into the Hub.

Steve blinked. Tony gasped. And Jack chuckled.

"Really, you both fought Asgardians, and a simple pterodactyl renders you two speechless?"

"Why is the world changing so fast?" Steve moaned into his hands.

It was Ianto, arriving with another tray of coffee, who answered,

"It isn't. And that's what's terrifying," he passed out the coffee. Tony hadn't even noticed his was empty. Ianto nodded to his quiet, impressed murmur, "The Earth has always been strange. Not because life developed here—life is everywhere. But strange in that our luck is extraordinary. Important turning points seem happen here. Strange and terrible things happen here. But we are so ordinary, so tiny. We have very little to offer the universe right now,"

Ianto paused and placed a reassuring hand on Steve's knee, "But this makes us fight. And the human race will always fight. It's what we're best at. Fight to survive, to expand, to exist. One day we will be scattered, changed, but we will always be the most remarkable of unremarkable beings,"

"How do you know?" It was Tony who asked in a quiet and shaking voice.

"Because I've seen it. And I'm proof. The weevils are proof. The Hub is proof. You two are proof," Jack's voice was also small, but convicted, "And the Doctor believes in us too,"

"Doctor? Doctor Harper?" Steve twisted to peer down at their poorly concealed eavesdropping audience.

"GOD no," Jack gave a shudder, "But the Doctor is a story you'll have to experience for yourself. He'll be by StarkTower eventually. He loves famous historical figures," he nodded toward Tony.

"I'm not a historical figure yet," Tony protested, feeling older suddenly.

"The Doctor will be the judge of that. Now," Jack leaned forward, "Why don't we get down to why you're here? Because, excuse me for saying so, Miss Potts is a much more welcome sight—not that you two aren't delicious looking. And I know that one, you wouldn't go anywhere for business," an eyebrow was canted at Tony, "and two, if it were business, I doubt you would drag poor Steve here along for the ride,"

Steve looked almost pleadingly at Tony who responded with a firm 'not me' motion.

So Steve told Captain Jack Harkness, nearly 70 years later, about his admiration, appreciation, and love.

Steve explained about Tony's gesture of kindness that had revealed Jack's continued existence, and blushing faintly Steve told him about the website and Pepper setting up their meeting. He told Jack just how much he had appreciated another friend while in the Program. He told Jack about how the older man had helped him.

"And, I guess… I just wanted to thank you, Captain—Jack. You helped me when I was first figuring out how to be Captain America, and… back then I was to ashamed to admit my feelings," Steve cast his eyes aside, "I guess I never forgot my first love,"

Jack listened to Steve's tale with rapt attention. He'd known the younger man looked up to him, had liked him. But he was still touched to hear it from the source. When Steve finished, Jack hugged him tightly. Both Tony and Ianto were doing their best to be invisible, looking around and fighting the urge to cough and fidget. They were men, damnit. Men didn't do feelings like this. Certainly not the stark and bare exchange they'd just witnessed.

"Thanks for telling me Steve. I always knew you'd turn out great, but even I couldn't imagine you'd be this good. You were, are, and always shall be someone I admire and am proud to call my friend," Jack began to grin and ruffled the soldier's hair, "But, you're a terrible liar. I was never your first love. And he did love you back. He loved you more than anything, with all his heart. He followed you until the very end, never looking back,"

Steve's eyes were wide as the realization came over him, "Bucky?"

"Even if you two never said it—or realized just what it was, I know you bother knew it was there, and special. You were both there," Jack smiled.

Steve just laughed, tears in his eyes and on his cheeks.

Later, when he and Tony took their leave, Jack leaned in and whispered something in Steve's ear.

"Hey!" Tony looked at his friend expectantly, reading wonder, hope, and a dazzling happiness on the older man's face.

Jack just shook his head and said, "Spoilers!"

Ianto watched Jack as the two American superheroes strolled away.

"What did you tell him Sir?"

"A little Spoiler about a certain Winter Soldier. What's the date?"

Ianto told him.

"Steve's gonna have a little leg up on next year, is all,"

Ianto smiled, "You're a good man Jack. Now come help me by being bad. I need the others to see me add some sugar to the coffee pot out of this after you get your cup," Ianto tossed Jack an empty container with the intergalactic symbol for poison on it.

"Oooh, Ianto, I love it when you're bad!"

Fin.


End file.
